pronounciation help please

[patr]

I know the J make the Y sound in Jost;
But is the O long or short -
does it rhyme with lost or ghost?

And ~

Charlotte (I can say that part)
Amalie - is it Uh-MALL-ee or is it Om-uh-LEE?
(I just usually say downtown St Thomas)

[FrankG]

OK, lets see if I can explain this right. I'm sure that some of the others on this forum will do better than I, but I'm going to give it a shot. Jost Van Dyke is pronounced "Yo", (long O), "st" "Van" (same as a minivan), "Dike" (like what the little Dutch Boy stuck his finger in). Charlotte Amalie is pronounced Charlotte, (like the city in North Carolina), "Ah - MA - ly - ah" (like it has an "a" on the end). OK, let the games begin.

[Gypsy Doug]

I agree with FrankG about Charlotte but the natives of Jost Van Dyke pronounce Jost the Dutch way which is a hard J long O, Jo-st. Continentels mistakenly favor the spanish pronouciation. It just caught on because of the high turn-over of new people who come to work for a season.

[RonUSVI]

[I totally agree Doug. The people from JVD say it like Joss pronoucing the hard J. But, then again I have heard Foxy say it both ways in the same sentence!
Amalia is really the way Amalie should be spelt. Somewhere along the way it ot changed to Amalie. There is a movement to have all official names be changed back to Amalia right now.

RL

[Pete (Mr. Marcia)]

I suggest we just rename Jost "Fred." No confusion there.